30th Nov 2017

INTERVIEW: HQ Familia’s Charlie Georgio

HQ Familia in Leicester are fast becoming one of the biggest driving forces behind new and upcoming talent in the city.

Charlie Georgio is one of HQ Familia’s first signed artists and features on the debut release compilation EP HQ Familia Presents…HQF001 . We caught up with Charlie to find out what life is like for them since the release.

Congratulations on being one of the first signed artists for HQ Familia, it must have been quite a buzz when all that took place.

Yeah definitely, I found out on my birthday as well which made it even better!

Oh wow, what a birthday present! Tell us a little bit more about yourself, how did you get into music and what inspired you to take it seriously?

I’ve always been into music, I went to college to train as an actor for musical theatre so I had to do a lot of vocal training and performance. I started taking it seriously when my cousin Harri Georgio, started working as a producer and sound engineer here at HQ. I always used to follow his music and then I just started rapping. I wanted to take it a bit more seriously because I enjoyed making music as much as I enjoyed acting and he brought me along to HQ and got me involved. He introduced me to all of people here at HQ and it went from there. It just organically worked and that’s what I thought was wicked about it.

Who would be your biggest musical influences?

For me, a lot of American rapper’s, especially artists like Mac Miller

In all fairness, when I was a kid, when I was at school I was never really listening to modern music, my Dad had me listening to stuff from the 50s rock n roll era, Elvis Presley and The Rat Pack. That is the sort of music I actually used to listen to and that really shaped up my whole style and everything. As I was getting older I started listening to stuff such as Tyler the Creator, Future, all that weird cool alternative rap because that is the stuff I kinda relate to because I’m a bit of a weirdo myself.

There’s nothing wrong with being a bit weird.

You have to embrace it.

Definitely, you’re one of the artists featured on HQ Familia’s first studio EP, how does it feel to be a part of Leicester’s hottest new label?

It’s sick when you put it like that! Really good because I never saw my music being taken that seriously so that was really cool. My first track ‘You’ came about when I hit my mate up and said let’s just make a track, I just wanted to make some music at that stage. It just went from there, Yasin really liked it and featured it on the EP.

What advice or what have you learned from the guys here at HQ Familia and how have they helped you?

They’ve helped a lot. Whenever I’m usually recording my tracks I’m doing it with Harri and he’s really helped me a lot with all the skills I need to use in the studio. He showed me how things really work. Yasin showed me that it can all be done and he said actually you can do this.

As he’s been in the music business for years, if he’s telling me that sort of stuff, that’s when I really started to believe it.

Who would be your dream collaboration?

Chance the Rapper. I love him, that takes me back to college days, I love his acid rap album. I like his whole flow and sound, I think that would be a sick person to collaborate with.

Good Choice. What has 2018 got in store for you?

I have a few singles coming out early next year and then my EP is going to be released.

Next year’s going to be big then?

Yeah that’s it! Gotta push it as much as possible.

Going back to Leicester, what do you like most about Leicester, where do you hang out?

I think Leicester’s a really cool city and the music scene is really coming up. I like everything about it, I walk around the streets and there’s all this cool artwork everywhere and I just think that it’s really creative, I’m from Birmingham and whenever I come here I always get a good vibe.

As a young artist yourself, what would be the best advice you could offer to any aspiring singers, musicians, artists?

Just have self-belief. Idolise yourself, put some belief in yourself and know that you can do it. Don’t be afraid because at the end of the day, if you make a mistake, people forget, people carry on living their lives. You can always bounce back from something and just get on with it. You will always improve if you put the time in.